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Following the Paris Agreement, virtually all countries worldwide have committed themselves to undertaking efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. Within the European Union (EU), the recent ‘Fit for 55’ policy package proposes ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policies for all sectors as part of the EU's contribution to limiting global warming. Yet, it is unclear whether the proposed policies are sufficient for the EU to limit global warming to 1.5 °C and it remains an open policy problem how to translate global temperature targets into sector-specific emission budgets and further into sector-specific policies. Here, we derive GHG budgets for transport in EU27 and obtain GHG mitigation pathways for Europe consistent with 1.5 °C global warming. We do not provide a comprehensive assessment of the ‘Fit for 55’ transport package but we discuss the main policies for road transport in light of the GHG emission budgets, their level of ambition, and suggest amendments to these policies as well as improvements to the ‘Fit for 55’ package. Our results suggest that parts of the ‘Fit for 55’ for transport are still not ambitious enough to align with a 1.5 °C scenario. Key policy insightsA Paris-compatible residual carbon budget for EU transport is 10–12 Gt CO2.The budget implies net zero emissions for EU transport by 2044–2048 latest.We find the current ‘Fit for 55’ proposal for transport is not ambitious enough.A faster phase-out of cars and trucks with combustion engines is required and there is a need for ambitious standards for fast charging e-vehicles.CO2 pricing of transport is not a substitute but a complement to fleet targets. A Paris-compatible residual carbon budget for EU transport is 10–12 Gt CO2. The budget implies net zero emissions for EU transport by 2044–2048 latest. We find the current ‘Fit for 55’ proposal for transport is not ambitious enough. A faster phase-out of cars and trucks with combustion engines is required and there is a need for ambitious standards for fast charging e-vehicles. CO2 pricing of transport is not a substitute but a complement to fleet targets.

The role of the EU in sustainable development has been generally seen as influential so far. The EU has proven its commitment to promoting sustainability abroad, and the EU has embarked on a transition to a low-carbon society at home. The Middle East lags behind all regions regarding sustainability due to ravaging economic, security, and social challenges, particularly in Iraq and Syria. As the economic nature of the petro-states, the petroleum price influences the GDP and economic growth not only for Iraq and Syria but the majority of resource-based economies. This creates fragile economies that are less resistant to international financial crises. Moreover, petro-states have few economic characteristics, including; high capital intensity, centralization and control of revenues, and low demand for labor. At the same time, oil has special effects on domestic conditions like authoritarianism and the temptation for civil war. This study focuses on the role of the EU in sustainability policy towards Iraq and Syria. This study highlights how the European Green Deal (EGD) influences the path to sustainability in the Middle East, specifically in Iraq and Syria. In line with this, the analytical framework discusses the logic of social actions (consequentialism and appropriateness), which are at play in EU-Middle East relations. Thus, it contributes to the role of the EU as a leading actor in global sustainability governance, focusing on a region that has been largely neglected.

Despite the urgency of mitigating climate change, climate action remains insufficient. People are therefore often seen as being unmotivated to take climate action. Yet, research suggests most people are motivated. To mitigate climate change, barriers that obstruct people from realizing their motivations need to be removed altogether.

These files contain input assumptions, results, and figures associated with the Bistline, et al. (2023) article "Emissions and Energy Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act" in Science. Please refer to the original paper for details.

The United States government has indicated a desire to advance environmental justice through climate policy. As fossil fuel combustion produces both conventional pollutants and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, climate mitigation strategies may provide an opportunity to address historical inequities in air pollution exposure. To test the impact of climate policy implementation choices on air quality equity, we develop a broad range of GHG reduction scenarios that are each consistent with the US Paris Accord target and model the resulting air pollution changes. Using idealized decision criteria, we show that least cost and income-based emission reductions can exacerbate air pollution disparities for communities of color. With a suite of randomized experiments that facilitates exploration of a wider climate policy decision space, we show that disparities largely persist despite declines in average pollution exposure, but that reducing transportation emissions has the most potential to reduce racial inequities.

Purpose of Review Here, we review recent estimates of the remaining carbon budget, with a focus on characterizing key uncertainties and assessing the implications for net-zero CO₂ targets and climate policy. Recent Findings Recent analyses offer a range estimates of remaining allowable CO₂ emissions for the 1.5°C and well-below 2°C climate targets, though the treatment and coverage of key sources of uncertainty vary considerably among studies. We recommend that net-zero CO₂ targets be set with explicit recognition of the uncertainty associated with carbon budget estimates and be updated regularly as this uncertainty is better constrained. Allocating the remaining carbon budget among countries or other entities, as well as monitoring progress at the subnational level, represents additional key challenges in applying a carbon budget framework to climate policy. Summary Despite these challenges, recent advances in quantifying carbon budget uncertainty demonstrate that the concept is well-suited to inform climate policy and to evaluate whether net-zero CO₂ targets are consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. ISSN:2198-6061

Some of the most influential explorations of low-carbon transformations are conducted with Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs). The recent attempts by the IPCC to look for pathways compatible with the 1.5 °C and 2 °C temperature goals are a case in point. Earlier scholarship indicates that model-based pathways are persuasive in bringing specific possible future alternatives into view and guiding policymaking. However, the process through which these shared imaginations of possible futures come about is not yet well understood. By closely examining the science-policy dynamics around the IPCC SR1.5, we observe a sequence of mutually legitimising interactions between modelling and policy making through which the 1.5 °C goal gradually gained traction in global climate politics. Our findings reveal a practice of ‘political calibration’, a continuous relational readjustment between modelling and the policy community. This political calibration is indicative of how modellers navigate climate politics to maintain policy relevance. However, this navigation also brings key dilemmas for modellers, between 1) requirements of the policy process and experts’ conviction of realism; 2) perceived political sensitivities and widening the range of mitigation options; and 3) circulating crisp storylines and avoiding policy-prescriptiveness. Overall, these findings call into question the political neutrality of IAMs in its current position in the science-policy interface and suggest a future orientation in which modellers aim to develop additional relations with a broader set of publics resulting in more diverse perspectives on plausible and desirable futures.

Russia has not yet paid due attention to the issues of the transition to electric transport. Only in August 2021, the Russian Government approved a Concept for the development of production and use of electric road transport in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030. The aim of this study is analysis the Concept from the point of view of world experience in stimulating the development of the electric vehicle market. The study showed that the most elaborated directions of the Concept for the development of production and use of electric road transport in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 are the direction of creating a national production of batteries and hydrogen fuel cells, as well as the direction of creating national production facilities and localizing foreign production of electric vehicles, including cars with hydrogen fuel cells. The least developed direction of the Concept is the direction of creating a national base for certification and testing of electric vehicles, which indicates the problem of a lack of competencies in the scientific and technical sphere.

The article proposes to consider climate security as an important factor in the sustainable development of the economy. The problems of climate risk management have been identified. Based on a literature review, a system of national climate regulation objectives have been proposed and logically justified. The main stages of their achievement have been presented. The need for a project-based approach to climate regulation has been justified. The idea of a national project at state level and three federal projects as part of it has been proposed. The author’s model for managing the country’s climate security has been presented. The standard plan for the implementation of this model at the regional level has been developed. The results can be used in national strategic management of country climate security and its constituent entities.

Since introducing a path-breaking carbon tax in 2008, the western Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) has attracted significant attention from climate policy scholars. The enactment of its carbon tax has made the case of BC intriguing, as Canada is a poor climate performer, BC is a fossil fuel producer, and carbon taxes are politically challenging to introduce anywhere. This paper discusses the BC tax, and what lessons it holds for other jurisdictions. We complement existing accounts with new details about key events and developments in recent years, and about climate policymaking in BC generally. While there are features of the tax's design and promotion that would be worth replicating elsewhere, we argue its survival reflects some simple good fortune. Moreover, the case of BC should not be reduced to its tax, as the province has enacted other notable climate policies, some of which have done more to reduce emissions while attracting less public criticism.

Starptautiskās attiecības - Eiropas studijas Socioloģija, politoloģija un antropoloģija International Relations - European Studies Sociology, Politics and Anthropology “Klimata politikas rāmējums Vācijas, Itālijas, Polijas, Francijas un Spānijas populārāko partiju priekšvēlēšanu programmās”. Pētījuma mērķis: analizēt klimata politikas rāmējumu lielāko ES CO2 saražotājvalstu - Vācijas, Itālijas, Polijas, Francijas un Spānijas, partiju priekšvēlēšanu programmās no 2019. gada, lai noskaidrotu, kā katras valsts populārākā partija raksturo klimata politikuu. Pētījuma uzdevumi: 1) Aprakstīt konstruktīvisma teoriju; 2) Raksturot konstruktīvismu partiju politikas rāmēšanā un noteikšanā; 3) Raksturot klimata politiku, tās nozīmīgumu un attīstību; 4) Veikt naratīva analīzi par klimata politiku no Vācijas, Itālijas, Polijas, Francijas un Spānijas parlamentā esošo partiju programmām; 5) Apkopot informāciju par katras valsts parlameta partiju klimata politikas nozīmīgumu to partiju programmās. Informācija tiks iegūta ar kvalitatīvām pētniecības metodēm. Par kvalitatīvo metodi tiks izvēlēta naratīva analīze, ar kuras palīdzību tiks veidota pieeja partiju klimata politikas preferenču mērīšanai, analizējot partiju programmas un meklējot atslēgvārdus, kas saistīti ar klimata politiku un raksturo partiju mērķus attiecībā pret klimata politikas realizēšanu un attīstību. Hipotēze: Sociāldemokrātiskās valstis rāmē klimata politiku kā ekonomiskās izaugsmes iespēju. Pirmajā nodaļā tiks aprakstīts konstruktīvisms, Aleksandra Venda konstruktīvisma teorijā, kā viņš raksturo identitātes un anarhijas lomu rīcību un ideju noteikšanā. Otrajā nodaļā tiks aprakstīti nozīmīgākie klimata politikas līgumi – Kioto protokols, Parīzes nolīgums un Eiropas zaļais kurss. Kā arī, tiks raksturotas valstu populārākās partijas - Vācijas Sociāldemokrātiskā partija, Spānijas Sociālistiskā strādnieku partija, Itālijas brāļu partija, Polijas Likums un taisnīgums un Francijas Republika uz priekšu partija. Trešajā nodaļā tiks veikta Vācijas, Itālijas, Polijas, Francijas un Spānijas populārāko partiju priekšvēlēšanu programmu analīze, meklējot, kā katra partija rāmē klimata politiku. Secinājumi: Pētījuma hipotēze ka sociāldemokrātiskās valstis rāmē klimata politiku kā ekonomiskās izaugsmes iespēju apstiprinājās. Atslēgvārdi: Klimata politika, ES, priekšvēlešanu programma, rāmēšana, konstruktīvisms. “Climate policy framing in the pre-election programs of the most popular parties in Germany, Italy, Poland, France and Spain”. Research purpose: to analyze the climate policy framework in the pre-election programs of the parties of the largest EU CO2 producing countries - Germany, Italy, Poland, France and Spain from 2019, in order to find out how the most popular party of each country characterizes the climate policy. Research tasks: 1) Describe the theory of constructivism; 2) Characterizing constructivism in framing and determining party policy; 3) Describing climate policy, its importance and development; 4) To analyze the narrative on climate policy from the programs of the parties in the parliament of Germany, Italy, Poland, France and Spain;5) Gathering information about the importance of the climate policy of the parliamentary parties of each country in their party programs. Information will be obtained through qualitative research methods. Narrative analysis will be chosen as the qualitative method, through which an approach to measuring parties' climate policy preferences will be created by analyzing party programs and searching for keywords related to climate policy and describing the parties' goals in relation to the implementation and development of climate policy. Hypothesis: Social democratic countries frame climate policy as an opportunity for economic growth. The first chapter will describe constructivism, Alexander Wendt's theory of constructivism, as he describes the role of identity and anarchy in determining actions and ideas. The second chapter will describe the most important climate policy agreements - the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal. Also, the most popular parties of the countries will be described - the German Social Democratic Party, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, the Italian Brotherhood Party, the Polish Law and Justice and the French Republic Forward Party. The third chapter will analyze the pre-election programs of the most popular parties in Germany, Italy, Poland, France and Spain, looking at how each party frames climate policy. Conclusions: The research hypothesis that social democratic countries frame climate policy as an opportunity for economic growth was confirmed. Keywords: Climate policy, EU, pre-election program, framing, constructivism.

This article analyzes the acceptance of climate policy measures in the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam to understand how policy and planning interrelate with private and public interests. While legitimizing climate policy and measures, values can also cause conflict when operationalized locally. By analyzing value conflicts in public discourse, we gain insights into questions of environmental behavior and their influence on the acceptance of climate action. We report on quantitative and qualitative discourse analysis covering 410 articles from Dutch newspapers between 2015 and 2021 in the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam related to the energy transition, mobility, and urban greening. Our findings show that public discourse mostly remains abstract and detached from local contexts. As experts and politicians dominate the debate, the discourse mainly addresses science- and policy-related arguments, representing the public interest but reflecting only insufficiently private interests and the local (re-)distribution of benefits and burdens. Therefore, we attribute spontaneous protest to the lack of reference to differentiated values at the local level and find the argument of NIMBYism insufficient to explain residents’ opposition. Instead, our findings point to experts’ and decision-makers’ lack of recognition of the local “idea of place” and a community’s identity as an explanation for the sudden emergence of protests. Here, urban design may bridge the gap between policy and planning by translating technical and economic constraints into place-specific designs.

German development cooperation (DC) supports developing and emerging countries in adapting to climate change. DEval evaluated its success in a modular evaluation of climate change adaptation interventions. This Policy Brief summarises the key fndings of the evaluation and gives recommendations for a better climate policy.

Die Stellungnahme zum Anfang April 2023 veröffentlichten Referentenentwurfs für ein Bundes-Klimaanpassungsgesetz des Bundesministeriums für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz (BMUV) würdigt und analysiert den Entwurf und empfiehlt Nachbesserungen.

The prospect of implementing the concept of the Blue Economy is currently still at a relatively early stage of achieving its full potential. The purpose of this paper is to present the idea of the ocean economy and selected aspects of its financing, including initiatives undertaken in this area by the European Union. Part I characterises the Blue Economy, part II discusses selected aspects of financing a sustainable ocean economy, and part III analyses the institutional approach, particularly within the EU, to the financing process of this type of economy. The descriptive method was used to conduct this study, and the available literature on and legal acts related to the subject of the article has been analysed. The undertakings made so far, especially by the EU, are impressive and, moreover, are driving global activity towards the sustainable financing of the Blue Economy. It is becoming a fundamental priority to realise the governments' and international organisations' aspirations to make economies independent from excessive carbon emissions, to counteract water degradation, overfishing, and shrinking drinking water resources. In the long term, it is important to develop coherence between the actions of national entities and the sources and methods of international funding. This is in order to develop a mutual, global good of innovative financing of coastal projects for sustainable development.

The decades of increased Green House Gas (GHG) emissions have increased global average temperature to 1.1 degrees over pre-industrial levels. In order to hold the global average temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius and, if possible, 1.5 degree Celsius, the governments signed various treaties. However, countries' collective agreements to reduce their emissions were never kept. This study outlines why the method of mitigating global climate change has failed. The main problem was the inability to enforce goals and timelines. Ideas for even tighter emission limits will be ineffective unless they solve the enforcement gap. Trade restrictions are one method, but they introduce significant complications, particularly when used to enforce economy-wide carbon reduction agreements. The applied methodology is qualitative. This study proposes a novel strategy to unpack the climate challenge, targeting various gasses and industries with various instruments. It also illustrates how failing to address the climate problem fundamentally would generate incentives for various solutions, offering new problems for climate change governance.

Die deutsche Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (EZ) unterstützt Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländer bei der Anpassung an den Klimawandel. Das DEval hat im Rahmen einer modularen Evaluierung von Maßnahmen zur Anpassung an den Klimawandel deren Erfolg bewertet. In diesem Policy Brief werden die zentralen Ergebnisse der Evaluierung zusammengefasst und Empfehlungen für eine wirksamere Klimapolitik ausgesprochen.

In a press conference in Buenos Aires in October 2022, Josep Borrell, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, declared that 2023 must be the year of Latin America in Europe and of Europe in Latin America. There is renewed European interest in Latin America as a strategic partner, but many Latin American governments prefer an active non-alignment in international politics. The Spanish EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2023 will open a window of opportunity for deepening EU-Latin American and the Caribbean relations. A summit between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the first since 2015, is planned to be held from 17-18 July 2023 in Brussels. As the EU is pursuing open strategic autonomy, Latin America is perceived as a possible strategic partner supportive of its agenda in international politics. Strategically important raw materials are imported from Latin America, and the latter's countries have the potential to become important producers and exporters of green hydrogen. While Europe has lost ground as a trading partner with Latin America to China, European companies are still a leading investor in the region, and Europe has still soft power or power of attraction in Latin America. The results of the recent elections in Latin America, especially the victory of Lula da Silva in Brazil, open new possibilities for EU cooperation with the region. It will be easier to find common positions on climate change and the protection of the Amazon rainforest. But Latin American governments will demand more protection for their domestic industries in free trade agreements and expect more European funding for measures against climate change and for environmental protection, and they will not automatically support European positions in international politics. If the EU wants to win over Latin America as a strategic partner, it must also act strategically. The signing of the association agreement with Mercosur should take highest priority, even in the face of resistance from within Europe. The upcoming EU-CELAC summit offers an opportunity to adopt a new agenda of bi-regional cooperation.

Climate change is compounding the Democratic Republic of Congo's tangle of problems - a long-running civil war, weak governance, and deeply entrenched poverty and inequality. The country's future is of global significance: its vast Congo-basin rainforest is a crucial carbon sink and a haven of biodiversity. DRC's hydropower potential and its deposits of copper and cobalt could enable the energy transition, but a green resource looms over development prospects. Germany will need flexible and well-aligned national strategies to effectively support peace, human progress, and environmental protection in the DRC while putting the focus on the needs of marginalized populations.

The imperative of climate change has inspired hundreds of cities across the United States to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet in some contexts, urban greening and climate action have exacerbated social injustices, spawning green gentrification or increasing the cost of living. In response, cities are beginning to shift their governing institutions to foster collaboration between departments and build local capacities while leaning into the interconnected nature of climate change mitigation, housing affordability, and social justice. Through a cross-case comparison of Denver, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah, two cities committed to climate action while facing severe housing crises, this study argues that cities are entering a new phase of urban climate action, one that can build a more sustainable and equitable urban environment for all.

Analysing roll call votes from the energy and climate policy field in the Eighth European Parliament (2014–2019), this article asks why has the European Parliament succeeded in maintaining its relatively ambitious position and how national and partizan factors explain voting behaviour of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on EU energy and climate legislation. We find the Eurosceptic vs. pro-EU cleavage to be the main conflict line structuring voting on energy and climate policy. Additionally, EU energy and climate policy has been supported by MEPs from member states with a track record of more ambitious climate policymaking and those with higher energy dependence. We show that increasing party fragmentation in the European Parliament has strengthened the influence of some progressive party groups, particularly the Greens, and has enhanced the European Parliament’s ability to mobilize support for a relatively ambitious energy and climate legislation.

Starptautiskās attiecības - Eiropas studijas Socioloģija, politoloģija un antropoloģija International Relations - European Studies Sociology, Politics and Anthropology Bakalaura darba tēma ir “Latvijas Republikas 13. Saeimas politisko partiju vides un klimata naratīvi un to atbilstība Eiropas Savienības klimata politikas pamatuztādījumiem”. Klimata pārmaiņas ir globāla līmeņa sociāls, ekonomisks un drošības apdraudējums valstīm, kura postošo ietekmi ar katru gadu izjūtam arvien spēcīgāk. Globālā līmenī valstu līderi ir sanākuši uz vairākiem desmitiem konferenču un parakstījuši vairākas starptautiskās vienošanās, atzīstot klimata pārmaiņas par nopietnu problēmu un apņemoties mazināt cilvēka radīto ietekmi uz tām. Eiropas Savienības dalībvalstu skatījumā globālā līmeņa centieni nav bijuši pietiekami, kā rezultātā tās izstrādājušas daudz ambiciozāku klimata politiku, apņemoties līdz 2050. gadam kļūt par pirmo klimatneitrālo reģionu pasaulē. Saskaņā ar stratēģiskā naratīva konceptu, lai sekmīgi īstenotu Eiropas Savienības līmenī izvirzītos mērķus, nepieciešama vienota problēmas, īstenojamo pasākumu izpratne visos pārvaldes līmeņos. Šī darba mērķis ir noskaidrot Latvijas Republikas 13. Saeimas politisko partiju vides un klimata naratīvus, Eiropas Savienības klimata politikai kontekstā. Pētījumā izvirzīta hipotēze, ka Latvijas Republikas 13. Saeimas politisko partiju vides un klimata naratīvos novērojama pakāpeniska tuvināšanās Eiropas Savienības klimata politikas pamatnostādnēm. Darba ietvaros analizētas Latvijas Republikas 13. Saeimas politisko partiju priekšvēlēšanu programmās un Saeimas sēžu debatēs paustie naratīvi. Naratīvu analīzes veikšanai kā piemērotākā izvēlēta kvalitatīvā pētījumu metode – naratīva satura analīze. Tās ietvaros avoti kodēti pēc iepriekš izstrādātiem parametriem. Pētījuma ietvaros kodētas 7 Latvijas Republikas 13. Saeimas politisko partiju priekšvēlēšanu programmas un 127 attiecīgo politisko partiju deputātu runas 13. Saeimas sēžu debašu ietvaros, kas liecina, ka politisko partiju vides un klimata naratīvi 13. Saeimas sasaukuma darbības laikā ir tuvinājušies Eiropas Savienības klimata politikas pamatuzstādījumiem, vienlaikus piedzīvojot nopietnu satricinājumu 2022. gada sākumā līdz ar krīzi enerģētikas sektorā. Pētījums sastāv no trim nodaļām – teorētiskā pārskata pirmajā nodaļā, Eiropas Savienības un Latvijas klimata politikas un tās attīstības pārskata otrajā nodaļā un Latvijas Republikas 13. Saeimas politisko partiju vides un klimata naratīvu un to atbilstības Latvijas un Eiropas Savienības izstrādāto klimata politiku pamatuzstādījumiem analīzes trešajā nodaļā. The topic of the bachelor's thesis is "Environmental and climate narratives of the Latvian parliament's political parties and their coherence with the European Union's climate policy (2018-2022)". Climate change is a global social, economic and security threat to countries, whose devastating effects are felt more and more every year. At the global level, political leaders have gathered at dozens of conferences and signed several agreements, recognizing climate change as a serious problem and committing to reduce the human-made impact on it. In the meantime, the European Union has decided to move forward more rapidly. It has set the goal of becoming the world's first climate-neutral region by 2050, as well as reducing net emissions by at least 55% by 2030 (compared to 1990). According to the strategic narrative concept, in order to successfully achieve the goals, set at the level of the European Union, a common understanding of the problem and measures to be implemented is required at all levels of governance. The aim of this study is to find out the environmental and climate narratives of the political parties of the 13th Saeima of the Republic of Latvia, in the context of the European Union’s climate policy. The research hypothesizes states that the increase of coherence between the environmental and climate narratives of the political parties of the 13th Saeima of the Republic of Latvia and the European Union's climate policy basic settings can be observed. Using qualitative content analysis, 7 pre-election programs of the political parties and 127 climate and environment-related speeches of the members of these parties were coded according to 7 pre-defined parameters – as such as transport, energy, agriculture and forestry, waste management, production, natural resources/environment and society participation. This study showed that the environmental and climate narratives of the political parties during the 13th Saeima have come closer to the European Union's climate policy basic settings, while experiencing a serious upheaval at the beginning of 2022 with the crisis in the energy sector. The study consists of three chapters - the theoretical review in the first chapter, the European Unions and Latvia’s climate policies and their development in the second chapter, and the analysis of the environmental and climate narratives of the political parties and their coherence with the basic settings of the European Unions and Latvia’s climate policies in the third chapter.

Climate change has become one of the most difficult problems that humankind is confronted with in recent times, especially since the problem seems to defy most policies developed to curb it. In a problem-solving context, it is classified as a wicked problem and by far, the most concerning environmental problem humans have had to face. As much as many climate mitigation efforts have failed across the globe, a couple of them have also gained some success. The German Energiewende is one such case. The Energiewende, according to most authors and observers, has been a resounding success, but the problem is that the assertion tends to be based solely on a single state level analysis with the German political and environmental elements as the standards of measurement. No serious comparative study has been done on the policy in terms of the possibility to replicate it in other jurisdictions. In this regard, this paper seeks to investigate if the German Energiewende’s success is limited to Germany alone due to its federal system peculiarities or it can be replicated in other countries like Canada. Canada is selected for this comparative study because though Canada, like Germany, is a federal state, the federal government has done little to ensure a successful national climate policy. Besides, the few attempts made by the federal government to develop and implement a national climate legislation have often attracted opposition from the provincial governments. This study thus will shed light on what Germany did differently, how Germany is politically different from Canada and how that has contributed to the success story of Germany’s Energiewende.

The Gateway Belief Model (GBM) asserts that perceptions of consensus among experts about climate change are a gateway belief that directly impact public opinion about global warming and public support for climate policy. My research refines the model by proposing that the relationship between perceived scientific consensus (PSC) and climate attitudes might not be positive and significant throughout as the GBM implies. I introduce trust in scientists as a moderator of the relationship between PSC and climate opinion. I test the GBM and my extension utilizing data gathered from surveys of nationally representative, random samples in Sweden and the U.S. OLS regressions gauged associations between PSC and respondents' views on climate-related issues and tested whether PSC has greater impact among people with higher trust in scientists. Imposing a linearity assumption onto PSC led to positive and significant relationships between PSC and climate beliefs, supporting the GBM. However, relaxing the linearity assumption by assessing PSC categorically revealed a decreasing return to PSC. Trust in scientists failed to moderate the relationships between PSC, climate beliefs, and policy support, disputing the underlying mechanism of the GBM. Findings provide insights about the universality of scientific consensus message as a strategy to increase support for global warming action.

Die Studie, "Menschen in Deutschland: International" (MiDInt) verfolgt das Ziel, die Relevanz internationaler Ereignisse, politischer Entscheidungen und Krisen für die Erklärung politischer Extremismen in Deutschland und der Verbreitung von Intoleranz gegenüber unterschiedlichen Minderheiten und Fremdgruppen in den Blick zu nehmen. Die Studie MiDInt wird innerhalb des bundesweiten Forschungsverbundes MOTRA seit Herbst 2022 durch das GIGA in Hamburg und das Institut für Kriminologie an der Fakultät für Rechtswissenschaft der Universität Hamburg (UHH) als gemeinschaftliches Projekt durchgeführt. Im Februar 2022 fand die zweite Erhebungswelle für diese Studie in Form einer standardisierten Online-Befragung einer geschichteten Zufallsstichprobe eines Online-Access-Panels statt. Der vorliegende Forschungsbericht beschreibt für die dritte Welle von MiDInt, die im April und Mai 2023 stattfand, das Erhebungsdesign, die erreichte Stichprobe, die erhobenen Konstrukte und die dazu verwendeten Messinstrumente. Im Anhang findet sich das Erhebungsinstrument im Wortlaut sowie das Codebuch zum Datensatz, dem die Bezeichnungen der Variablen, deren Inhalt und Codierung entnommen werden können.

Migration, Flucht und Umsiedlungen in Folge des Klimawandels sind keine fernen Zukunftsszenarien, sondern materialisieren sich mittlerweile entlang immer gravierenderer Extremereignisse und schleichender Degradation. Angesichts der fortschreitenden globalen Erwärmung und der Gefahr des Überschreitens von Kipppunkten im Erdsystem sollten vorausschauende Klimaaußenpolitik und Entwicklungspolitik vermehrt auch schwerwiegende Klimafolgen in den Blick nehmen.

Social norms interventions (SNIs) are a robust and widely used tool for addressing climate change. SNIs targeting second-order climate beliefs can be used to correct normative misperceptions, close the partisan gap, and increase support for climate policy. They can also be harnessed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by targeting behaviors such as home energy conservation. A large body of current research supports the effectiveness of the SNI and provides guidance for how to optimize outreach and promote climate-relevant behaviors that are currently performed by only a minority of people.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has become a hugely influential institution. It is the authoritative voice on the science on climate change, and an exemplar of an intergovernmental science-policy interface. This book introduces the IPCC as an institution, covering its origins, history, processes, participants, products, and influence. Discussing its internal workings and operating principles, it shows how IPCC assessments are produced and how consensus is reached between scientific and policy experts from different institutions, countries, and social groups. A variety of practices and discourses – epistemic, diplomatic, procedural, communicative – that make the institution function are critically assessed, allowing the reader to learn from its successes and failures. This volume is the go-to reference for researchers studying or active within the IPCC, as well as invaluable for students concerned with global environmental problems and climate governance. This title is also available as Open Access via Cambridge Core.

The global crises of COVID-19 and climate change present unparalleled challenges, with policymakers now at a crossroads.The COVID-19 pandemic unleashed sickness and death worldwide and a global eco...

Estimates of economic implications of climate policy are important inputs into policy-making. Despite care to contextualize quantitative assessments of mitigation costs, one strong view outside academic climate economics is that achieving Paris Agreement goals implies sizable macroeconomic losses. Here, we argue that this notion results from unwarranted simplification or omission of the complexities of quantifying mitigation costs, which generates ambiguity in communication and interpretation. We synthesize key factors influencing mitigation cost estimates to guide interpretation of estimates, for example from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and suggest ways to improve the underlying models. We propose alternatives for the scenario design framework, the framing of mitigation costs and the methods used to derive them, to better inform public debate and policy.

What does the United States need to do to start a renewables revolution and get its electrical grid to 50, 60, or even 90 percent green energy? That’s a question that Greg Nemet, the author of How ...

There is a scientific consensus that human activities, in the form of emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, cause global warming. These emissions mostly occur in the marketplace, that is, they are undertaken by private individuals and firms. Governments seeking to curb emissions thus need to design policies that influence market behavior in the direction of their goals. Economists refer to Pigou taxation as “the” solution here, since the case of global warming can be seen as a pure (negative) externality. We agree. However, given the reluctance of policymakers to agree with us, there is an urgent need to consider, and compare, suboptimal policies. In this paper, we look at one such instance: setting a global tax on carbon at the wrong level. How costly are different errors? Since there is much uncertainty about how much climate change there will be, and how damaging it is when it occurs, ex-post errors will most likely be made. We compare different kinds of errors qualitatively and quantitatively and find that policy errors based on over-pessimistic views on climate change are much less costly than those made based on over-optimism. This finding is an inherent feature of standard integrated assessment models, even though these models do not feature tipping points or strong linearities.

Drained agricultural peatlands emit significantly higher amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per hectare than mineral soils. GHG abatement costs for representative cereals (CF) and dairy (DF) farms in southwestern Finland were estimated by integrating an emission-based tax together with an option to invest in a subsidized adjustable drainage system on peat soils in a farm-level dynamic optimization model. With an average 10% share of peat soils from overall farm area, emissions tax rates over 15 (CF) and 19 (DF) €/tCO2e triggered adjustable drainage investments with a significant reduction in GHG emissions per ha, when assuming no crop-yield effect from the adjustable drainage. Abatement costs for emissions tax rates €12–50/tCO2e/ha were €16–44/tCO2e (CF) and €26–51/tCO2e (DF) for whole farm-soil emissions, depending on the share of peatlands on the farm, on the yield effects of adjustable drainage, and on crop prices. High emissions tax rates imply higher abatement costs since farms have a limited capability to adjust their production and land use. Thus, emissions reductions from peatlands can be achieved at reasonable costs when investing in adjustable drainage on peatlands. The income losses due to emissions tax, however, are high, but they can be compensated for farmers by lumpsum payments independent of their production decisions. Since existing agricultural policies such as the EU CAP system may have limited effectiveness on GHG emissions, the emissions tax and adjustable drainage on peatlands could promote GHG abatement significantly on farms and areas with abundant peatlands.

Despite significant renewable energy expansion in the past, Germany has encountered difficulties in meeting its national greenhouse gas emission targets. In response, Germany adopted the Federal Climate Change Act (CCA) in 2019. We analyze the state of climate governance in Germany before the CCA, the main design elements of the CCA, and assess the potential of the CCA to change German climate governance. Drawing on policy integration theory and 26 semi-structured interviews with senior policymakers and stakeholders, we find that German climate governance before the CCA was only moderately integrated. The sectoral emission targets legislated by the CCA make climate change mitigation a priority sector goal in non-energy sectors, and CCA provisions for monitoring, assessing and implementing policy reforms promise to enhance alignment of instruments with targets over time. Overall, the CCA advances a multi-rather than cross-sector climate governance, failing to advance coordination across sectors and ministries.

As of 2020, carbon taxes were in effect in 30 jurisdictions around the world. This article provides a theoretical overview of carbon taxes along with some empirical evidence on the macroeconomic impacts of existing taxes, including emission reductions. It compares and contrasts carbon taxes with other policy instruments to reduce emissions. It also highlights issues that have recently attracted the attention of researchers on which additional research would be beneficial. Those include ( a) the role of border adjustments in a unilaterally imposed carbon tax, ( b) hybrid carbon tax systems that increase the likelihood of hitting desired emission reduction targets, ( c) the optimal price path for a carbon tax, and ( d) the growing empirical literature on the economic impact of carbon taxes.

The media represents a discursive site with actors trying to influence the discourse on a particular subject. The paper delves into an exploratory analysis of the policy discourse around climate ch...

Do cross-country differences in climate policy influence bank lending? This paper focusses on the period 2007–2017 and uses syndicated loan-level data to examine if the stringency of home-country climate policies increases cross-border bank lending. Loan fixed effects allow us to disentangle loan demand from supply and to control for unobserved and observed loan and firm characteristics. I find evidence that a strict home-country climate policy is associated with an increase in banks’ cross-border loan shares. This suggests that the transition to a low-carbon economy might be threatened if global coordination between governments is not enforced.

Understanding how experiences with weather affect attitudes and behaviors related to climate change supports our efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. A variety of studies have reported evidence of notable effects of weather experiences on climate attitudes, while other studies have found null effects. This review overviews recent research that has contributed further evidence regarding the effects of weather experiences on climate attitudes and behaviors. Studies on three accounts of mechanisms by which these effects may occur (affect activation, issue salience, and psychological distance) and three categories of potential moderators (media attention, motivated reasoning, and event attribution) are discussed. Lastly, recent work on how weather experiences may create climate policy windows is reviewed and general conclusions are presented.

In previous works, I examine inferential methods employed in Probabilistic Weather Event Attribution studies (PEAs), and explored various ways they can be used to aid in climate policy decisions and decision-making about climate justice issues. This paper evaluates limitations of PEAs and considers how PEA researchers’ attributions of “liability” to specific countries for specific extreme weather events could be made more ethical. In sum, I show that it is routinely presupposed that PEA methods are not prone to inductive risks and presuppose that PEA researchers thus have no epistemic consequences or responsibilities for their attributions of liability. I argue that although PEAs are nevertheless crucially useful for practical decision-making, the attributions of liability made by PEA researchers are in fact prone to indicative risks and are influenced by non-epistemic values that PEA researchers should make transparent to make such studies more ethical. Finally, I outline possible normative approaches for making sciences, including PEAs, more ethical; and discuss implications of my arguments for the ongoing debate about how PEAs should guide climate policy and relevant legal decisions.

While the science-policy interface has been a major focus of recent climate policy research, the role of agency practices and bureaucratic behavior has been largely overlooked. With a focus on U.S. federal agencies and similar bureaucratic contexts, we review the literature on how administrative decision-making influences the acquisition and application of climate evidence, including information provided by both scientists and stakeholders. We show that administrative procedures (requirements for gathering and analyzing information), agency characteristics (such as mission and institutional design), and bureaucrat attributes (an individual’s expertise and values) shape agencies’ use of climate evidence. Given the key role of the administrative state in policymaking, our review calls for greater attention to public administration and its consequences for climate responsiveness.

We assess the response of the European Council and the Council of the European Union (hereafter the Council) to the emergence and development of the European Green Deal (EGD). First, we conduct a literature review of the historical role of the two intergovernmental institutions in EU climate policy development, drawing inspiration from new intergovernmentalism, historical institutionalism, and discursive institutionalism. Next, we provide an overview of the EGD itself and three of its core elements: (1) the ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2050; (2) its systemic and integrative nature; and (3) the just transition approach. We then present the results of a qualitative content analysis of all Council and European Council Conclusions from 2018 to 2020. Our findings show that the European Council and the Council have declared support for the EGD and its underlying principles. The European Council engaged with all three elements but mentioned the objective of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 most frequently and with growing intensity over the years studied. The Council similarly discussed the three elements of the EGD and gave increasing focus to the integrated/systemic transition over the course of the years 2018–2020. Our empirical analysis suggests that, on paper, the Council and the European Council may manage to govern through the organisational turbulence of member state divisions on climate governance. Furthermore, environmental turbulence arising from external contexts (e.g., economic and health crises) did not dampen their declared support towards the goals of the EGD.

Australia is a well-known climate laggard with a history of political conflict over climate policy and the dubious distinction of being the only country to repeal a national emissions trading schem...

The COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic impact on aviation in 2020, and the industry’s future is uncertain. In this paper, we consider scenarios for recovery and ongoing demand, and discuss the implications of these scenarios for aviation emissions-related policy, including the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Using the Aviation Integrated Model (AIM2015), a global aviation systems model, we project how long-term demand, fleet, and emissions projections might change. Depending on recovery scenario, we project cumulative aviation fuel use to 2050 might be up to 9% below that in scenarios not including the pandemic. The majority of this difference arises from reductions in relative global income levels. Around 40% of modeled scenarios project no offset requirement in either the CORSIA pilot or first phases; however, because of its more stringent emissions baseline (based on reductions from year 2004–2006 CO2, rather than constant year-2019 CO2), the EU ETS is likely to be less affected. However, if no new policies are applied and technology developments follow historical trends, year-2050 global net aviation CO2 is still likely to be well above industry goals, including the goal of carbon-neutral growth from 2019, even when the demand effects of the pandemic are accounted for.

Many authors who have analyzed key energy prices, such as crude oil and natural gas, have found that these prices exhibit “fat tails”—the feature that large percentage changes occur far more often than would be predicted by a conventional model. These fat tails can arise either because of time-varying volatility or because of rapid, unexpected changes—also known as jumps. Addressing global climate change is likely to require broad-based deployment of new infrastructure. This new infrastructure is likely to be both costly to build and difficult to reverse—suggesting the deployment of new infrastructure is an example of “investment under uncertainty” [1]. In this context, a key concept is the “option value of waiting,” i.e., the potential gain in value that arises from waiting to learn more about the evolution of some key underlying stochastic ingredient, such as a commodity price or the cost of a carbon permit. We argue that this option value of waiting is likely to be increased by the presence of jumps. Assuming there is some urgency in undertaking these investments, the increase in option value of waiting is worrisome and motivates the deployment of a policy intervention that reduces this option value.

China's climate governance is distinguished by the contrast between an abundance of policies on climate change and the lack of legally binding laws. This article argues that Chinese courts bridge this difference, which fosters a ‘rule of climate policy’ rather than a strict rule of law. The effective authority of Chinese climate policy is made possible in practice both by provisions of the Chinese Constitution and the prevailing use of legal reasoning. China's constitutional design of ‘ecological civilization’ delegates the duty and the power of managing climate change issues to the executive branch of its government. Most Chinese documents on climate governance have no binding legal force, which means, according to positive law, that they cannot serve as legal grounds for judicial decisions. Chinese judges, in deciding climate-related disputes, must combine legal provisions and non-binding materials to achieve regulatory goals. They use non-legal materials to support statutory or contractual interpretations and determine the existence or limits of rights, which alters the meaning and scope of existing legal terms and principles. This rule of climate policy is possible in the courtroom because judges justify public policy considerations with arguments of principle that are substantiated in various non-binding climate plans.

The reclamation of degraded pastures has a prominent role in the Brazilian climate policy and is one of the main strategies of Brazil's Low-Carbon Agriculture Plan (ABC Plan). Here, we aimed to eva...

While existing literature points to a number of factors that shape subnational support for climate policy, the extant scholarship has struggled to illustrate a clear and convincing explanation for ...

Topicality. The topicality of the issue presented in the article is due to the insufficiency of research on the Environmental Law Europeanization in domestic legal science. The purpose of the article. The purpose of the article is to study the essence of the concept of “law Europeanization” and the peculiarities of its implementation in the field of Environmental Law of EU member states and candidate states. Research methods. The Europeanization concept arose and developed as a result of changes occurred within the theory of integration itself. The article deals with the influence of the process of deepening of the integration and expansion of the European Union on the obligations of the member states regarding the protection of the environment and climate.It is observed that the construction and functioning of the EU legal order is a decisive factor of integration, which is viewed as a project of building a single market, complemented by the range of policies implementation, in particular in the field of environmental and climate protection. Results. The concept of Environmental Law Europeanization was analyzed, and the way how the legal systems of the EU member states contribute to the development of the European Union Environmental Law, which is supranational by its legal nature, was examined.It is emphasized that the Europeanization of law cannot be addressed as a homogeneous process, nor as a process that leads to the same result in each of the member states.Despite the obvious dominance of international law and globalization as factors determining the national law reform, it can be argued that the peculiarities of legal regulation of relations in the field of environmental and climate protection are caused by the consequences of “soft” or indirect Europeanization. In many cases, the rules of the EU legal order, which are incompatible with national rules, create pressure on national governments, prompting them to adapt national environmental legislation to European environmental legal standards. Attention is drawn to the fact that within the framework of the process of European integration, the process of de-Europeanization can occur to a certain extent and for various reasons. The significance of the results. The conclusions obtained as a result of the research will contribute to the awareness of the phenomenon of Europeanization of the EU member states and candidate states national law, in particular such a component as Environmental Law, its directions and forms, and may be useful in the process of domestic environmental legislation to the European Union environmental legislation adaptation., Актуальність. Актуальність наведеної в статті проблеми зумовлено недостатністю дослідження питань європеїзації екологічного права у вітчизняній юридичній науці. Мета статті полягає в дослідженні сутності поняття «європеїзація права» та особливостей її реалізації у сфері екологічного права держав-членів ЄС та країн-кандидатів. Методи дослідження. Концепція європеїзації виникла і розвивалася внаслідок змін, що відбувалися всередині самої теорії інтеграції. У статті досліджено вплив процесу поглиблення інтеграції та розширення Європейського Союзу на зобов’язання держав-членів щодо захисту навколишнього середовища і клімату. Зазначено, що побудова та функціонування правопорядку ЄС є визначальним фактором інтеграції, яку розглянуто як проєкт розбудови єдиного ринку, доповнений реалізацією комплексу політик, зокрема у сфері захисту навколишнього середовища і клімату. Результати. Проаналізовано концепцію європеїзації екологічного права, досліджено, як правові системи держав-членів ЄС долучаються до розвитку наднаціонального за своєю правовою природою екологічного права Європейського Союзу. Наголошено, що єропеїзацію права не можна розглядати ані як однорідний процес, ані як процес, що приводить до однакового результату в кожній із держав-членів. Незважаючи на очевидне домінування міжнародного права та глобалізації як чинників, що зумовлюють реформування національного права, стверджується, що особливості правового регулювання відносин у сфері захисту навколишнього середовища і клімату є наслідками «м’якої» або непрямої європеїзації. У багатьох випадках норми правопорядку ЄС, що несумісні з національними нормами, створюють тиск на національні уряди, спонукаючи їх до адаптації національного екологічного законодавства до європейських екологічних правових стандартів. Звернуто увагу на те, що в рамках процесу європейської інтеграції може відбуватися в певному обсязі та з різних причин процес деєвропеїзації. Значущість результатів. Отримані в результаті дослідження висновки сприятимуть усвідомленню феномену європеїзації національного права держав-членів ЄС та країн-кандидатів, зокрема такої його складової, як екологічне право, його напрямів і форм, і можуть стати у пригоді в процесі адаптації вітчизняного екологічного законодавства до екологічного законодавства Європейського Союзу.